The Ethics and Pro-Social Values in Judaism, Christianity and Islam ...

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32 oppression by ignorance, corruption and internecine violence tearing apart the fabric of Arabian tribes. This time of al-jahiliyya (ignorance) was ended through God’s revelation of the Qur’an through the Prophet Mohammed, whose leadership ultimately united the disparate, warring tribes of Arabia into the world’s first Muslim community (ummah). Many Islamic social ethics are drawn from the Prophet’s practices and experiences founding the first Muslim community in Medina. Muslims throughout history view this period as a time of righteousness, human affirmation, dignity and social justice, and a model for the ideal implementation of Islamic social ethics. Islamic Values Whereas Christian values refer to those laws derived from Jesus’ teaching, Islamic values are derived primarily from the Qur’an and the corpus of writings that follow the words and personal example of the Prophet Mohammed (the Hadiths) in Mecca and in the first Muslim community from which different legal schools of thought are based. These also form the basis of the Sunnah, the Muslim way of life. As the very purpose of Islam is to bring individuals into harmony with God’s purpose for creation both through worship and the creation of a just society to serve as a model for the rest of the world, considerable attention in Islamic tradition is devoted to social justice and humanitarian principles rooted in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Justice has a preeminent place in Islam, as it is for the avowed purpose of setting up a just community that God sent the Qur’an and guided the Prophet Mohammed: “We sent Our Messengers with clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the Measure in order to establish justice among the people” (57:25). Three core values and concepts in Islam on which a just society was created include what Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf calls “the Abrahamic ethic” of liberty, equality and fraternity, in addition to Islamic conceptions of charity and human dignity. (ref?) Equality and Social Justice Radical Egalitarianism and Human Dignity In Islam, social justice is rooted in a strong underlying egalitarian ethic, based on the Qur’anic principle that the only differentiation among creation to God is in piety. The Qur’an asserts that "The most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you" (49: 13). Other verses support this core of idea of equality: “It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah: it is your piety that reaches Him” (22:37). Various Hadiths also support this message: Abu Huraira reported that the Prophet said “Verily, Allah does not look to your faces and your wealth but He looks to your hearts and to your deeds” (Muslim, the Book of Virtue, Good Manners, and the Ties of Relationship, Hadith 6221). In his final sermon, the Prophet reminded his followers: All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white, except by piety and good action…
33 On the principle of equality and fundamental dignity of God’s creation, the Prophet moved to undermine traditional social and status barriers that had distorted justice and bred by declaring to believers that “slaves are your brothers”, and rewarding those who freed them. (Bukhari, 1/2, no. 29) Yet the most radical social reforms advanced by Islam regarded the status of women, who were given unprecedented rights, and who suddenly emerged in all aspects of community life, including battle, where they fought alongside men. The principle of strict individual moral accountability accorded an equal status to women as believers (or unbelievers). Numerous verses go to great lengths to support the principle of gender equality in the sight of God: Men and women who have surrendered, believing men and believing women, obedient men and obedient women, truthful men and truthful women, enduring men and enduring women, humble men and humble women, men and women who give charity, men who fast and women who fast, men and women who guard their private parts, men and women who remember God often - for them God has prepared forgiveness and a mighty reward. (73:36) In one verse, the Qur’an asserts that believing men and women “are leaders one of the other, they bid to honor, and forbid dishonor; they perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and they obey God and his Messenger. Those - upon them God will have mercy; God is All-mighty, All wise." (9:73). The Qur’an makes clear that there is no gender difference where righteousness is concerned (4:1; 4:124; 9:71, 6: 97). "That God may chastise the hypocrites, men and women alike, and the idolaters, men and women alike; and that God may turn again unto the believers, men and women alike." (33:73) Another verse notes: "I waste not the labor of any that labors among you, be you male or female - the one of you is as the other." (3:194) At a time when female infants were buried alive, and women were regarded as property, with no independent status or rightful claims, the independence, equality in legal and religious rights and duties accorded women in Medina was revolutionary. These advances in women’s dignity included implementing punishments for those accusing and defaming women (a false accusation of adultery becoming one of eight mortal sins) and added protections for women where their bodies were concerned. So radical were these reforms 15 – deeply controversial during the Prophet’s time – that the progress of gender equality suffered from severe, consecutive backlashes and a prolonged rollback in rights after his death (Ahmed 1992, Aslan 2005). 15 These included the right of women to choose one’s spouse, the right of inheritance, the right of due process when charged with improprieties, the right to own property independently, the right to enter into business contracts and deals independently, the right to divorce, the right to recourse against husbands and male relatives, the right to travel independently, the right to guardianship of children, a ban on isolating women, a ban on arbitrary divorce, the right to teach, learn and advocate their views, the right to participate in community decision-making, and freedom of expression.
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Page 3 and 4: 3 Mutual and collective responsibil
Page 5 and 6: 5 the cause of the poor of the peop
Page 7 and 8: 7 Moreover, the Prophets issued sta
Page 9 and 10: 9 matter of justice; the social obl
Page 11 and 12: 11 As early as the first century Ra
Page 13 and 14: 13 …if a person exhibits impudenc
Page 15 and 16: 15 Speaking kindly to the poor (cha
Page 17 and 18: 17 your neighbor as yourself.’ Th
Page 19 and 20: 19 Love and Ethics in Community Cor
Page 21 and 22: 21 Christian social values, while c
Page 23 and 24: 23 Redemption and Redemptive Suffer
Page 25 and 26: 25 leaders he condemned as abandoni
Page 27 and 28: 27 God for their well-being. Jesus
Page 29 and 30: 29 Since only God understands what
Page 31: 31 Muslim Values Human Nature In Is
Page 35 and 36: 35 This freedom of thought in matte
Page 37 and 38: 37 Paradise until ye have faith, an
Page 39 and 40: 39 Numerous Hadiths have the Prophe
Page 41 and 42: 41 A man’s true wealth, as regard
Page 43 and 44: 43 One hadith remarks on the greate
Page 45 and 46: 45 with the patient. (2:153) The Qu

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